Tailpiece for banjos



(No Model.)

B. D. SON. TAILPIEOE FOR BANJOS.

No. 516,125. Patented Mar. 6, 1894.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELEANOR D. SON, OF UTIOA, NEXV YORK.

TAILPIECE FOR BANJOS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 516,125, dated March 6, 1894.

Applica ion fi November 23, 1893. Serial No. 491,736- (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be itknown that I, ELEANOR D. SON, a citizen of the United States,residing at Utica,in the county of Oneida and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tailpieces for Banjos; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to a banjo tail-piece and its objects are to produce a device which will admit of the strings being readily secured to the same without threading, as is now commonly done, and which, when the strings are so applied, will hold them out of contact with the head skin of the instrument.

Another object is to so construct the tail piece that it can be secured to the head of the banjo by use of the ordinary head bolt, and when so attached, it will not come in contact with the head skin of the banjo.

Another object is to so construct the tail piece that when the strings are secured to the same, the knots in said strings will be covered and concealed so that they will not touch the head skin of the banjo and also cannot be struck by the hand of the performer in playing upon the instrument, both of which objections are very desirable to overcome; and a further object is the production of a simple, cheap and practical tail piece which can be made of a single piece of metal as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

These objects I obtain by the novel construction illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described in the following specification, in which Figure 1. is a perspective view of my improved banjo tailpiece. Fig. 2. is a plan view of a portion of a banjo with my tail piece applied to the same, and Fig. 3.is a vertical section through a portion of the head with my improved tail piece secured to the same and also showing a string secured in the same.

A in the drawings, represents my improved banjo tail piece which is made preferably of metal and stamped out of a single piece. It consists of an approximately flat plate which, as shown, is preferably flared outwardly from its rear to its front end, and is provided at its rear end with a backwardly extended, perforated portion a, and slightly forward of the perforation with downwardly extending legs a, a. Through the perforated rear extension at an ordinary straight bolt is adapted to be passed for securing the tail piece to the head of the banjo, and, when thus applied, the downwardly extending legs bear against the rim of the head, so that in tightening the strings, the tail piece will not be shifted to one side, but remain perfectly true on the head. The body of the tail piece is formed at its front edge with an upwardly turned cross bar a which is provided with notches a corresponding to the number of strings, which receive and guide the strings to the bridge. By curving the cross bar a and the sides of the plate at the junction with the cross bar, upward, the tail piece and the strings will be prevented from coming in contact with head skin of the banjo,and thereby deadening the tone of the instrument.

a represents the string holding portion which is struck up from the metal and bent upward and backward to form raised, spaced fingers with a continuous space a open at back and sides below the fingers. The spaces or slits in the upper surface of the string holding portion a are equal in number to the strings employed, and extend from the back' to the front of the same, and are of sufficient width to admit the insertion of the strings, but too small to allow the knotted ends to pass through the same.

In applying the strings it is not necessary to loosen or remove the tail piece from the head of the banjo, but it can be accomplished by simply knotting the strings, psssing the same into one of the passages a and drawing the string until the knot has passed into the space a as shown in Fig. 3, where it will be securely held. The string is then preferably passed under the bar 0, through the notches a therein, or wound around the bar and from thence across the bridge B to the tuning keys on the neck of the banjo, not shown. By stamping the metal up and bending it back to form the front bar a and the string holding portion a a channel or receptacle open at its rear and sides and closed at its front, is formed below the fingers, which covers and conceals the knots on the strings when the latter are in place, which, in the use of metal strings, is very important as it prevents the hand of the performer being lacerated, as is frequently the case with the use of tail pieces now in common use.

It will be observed that when the strings are attached to my improved tail piece, the knots rest on top of the body of the plate which is superior to tail pieces in which the string is passed through an opening in the body of the plate, as in the latter case, when the tail piece is secured in position, or when only a single string is to be renewed, it is very diflicult to apply the string, because suflicient room is not afiorded between the head skin and the tail piece to apply the string without the use of a knife or other tool, whereas with my tailpiece it can readily be-appli'ed with only the-use of the fingers.

Oneof the chief objections to-tailpieees is that the strings either'have to be threaded through small openings or wound around and tied to the tail piece, both of which operations are very objectionable. By the use of my invention these objections are entirely avoided.

It will .be observed that by constructingthe tail piece with an open space between the front crossbar. and the stringholding portion, a string can'bepassed through said space and wrapped once around the barbefore being passed over the bridge to the tuning key and tightened. I'regard this as very important, as by winding or wrapping the string once aroundrtheeross bar, the strain on the string is greatly reduced, which would not be the case if the cross bar were not-provided and the string extended directly fromthe string holding portion across the bridge to-the tuning key, or only passed through hooks or eyes without wrapping.

What I claim as-my invention is 1. As an-improved article ofmanufacture, a tail piece-for stringed instruments made ofa single piece-of metal,-and-comprising in its construction a-baseplate, a rear attaching portion, means for preventing the tail piece from turning when in position on a banjo, and raised, rearwardly extending fingers struck up from the bodyof the base plate and having vertical spaces between them which are open'attopandrear and communicate with a knot holding space below the fingers, the said base plate being also'formed with a passage between the front cross bar and the fin- 5 5 strain, substantially as described.

2. A tail piece for stringed instruments comprising in its construction a base plate provided with a front cross bar, a rear attaching portion, downwardly extending legs and raised rearwardly extending fingers having vertical spaces between them which are open at top and rear andcommunicate with a rearwardly opened knot holding spacebelow the fingers, the baseplate-being formed with a passage between the front cross bar and the fingers, substantially -as=and for thapurpose described.

3. Atailpiecefor-stringedinstruments comprising in its construction a base plate provided with a front, raised, notched crossbar,

an attaching portion, downwardly extending 7 5 legs, and raised rearwardlyextending fingers havingvertical spacesbetween them which'are open at top and rear, and communicate with a rearwardly: opened knot holdingspa'ce' below the fingers, the base-plate being also. provided with a passage between the said bar and the fingers, substantially as and for the purpose described.

4. As an improved article of manufacture,

a tail piece for stringed instruments made from a singlezpiece of metal-which comprises in its construction abase :plate' formed with a front crossbar, arearwardly ex-tended, .per-

forated attaching portion, downwardly extending legs formed on saidzplate, and raised,

rearwardly extending fingers formed onsaid plate and having vertical spaces between them which areopen at top and rear andcommunicate with a -rearwardly open knot holding space below the "fingers, the said base plate also being :formed with a passage between the said front cross bar and the string holding fingers, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof 'I hereunto *affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ELEANOR D. SON. Witnesses:

W. P. CARPENTER, CHAS. H. CARPENTER. 

